High quality p-type PbTe-CdTe monocrystalline alloys containing up to 10 at.% of Cd are obtained by self-selecting vapor transport method. Mid infrared photoluminescence experiments are performed to follow the variation of the fundamental energy gap as a function of Cd content. The Hall mobility, thermoelectric power, thermal conductivity and thermoelectric figure of merit parameter ZT are investigated experimentally and theoretically paying particular attention to the two-valence band structure of the material. It is shown that the heavy-hole band near the Σ point of the Brillouin zone plays an important role and is responsible for the Pb1−xCdxTe hole transport at higher Cd-content. Our data and their description can serve as the standard for Pb1−xCdxTe single crystals with x up to 0.1. It is shown, that monocrystalline Pb1−xCdxTe samples with relatively low Cd content of about 1 at.\% and hole concentration of the order of 1020 cm−3 may exhibit ZT≈ 1.4 at 600 K.
@article{arxiv.1911.05387,
title = {Two-valence band electron and heat transport in monocrystalline PbTe-CdTe solid solutions with high Cd content},
author = {M. Szot and P. Pfeffer and K. Dybko and A. Szczerbakow and L. Kowalczyk and P. Dziawa and R. Minikayev and T. Zayarnyuk and K. Piotrowski and M. U. Gutowska and A. Szewczyk and T. Story and W. Zawadzki},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1911.05387},
year = {2020}
}